Refrigerating apparatus for the cold storage of goods



Aug. 8, 1950 T E. E. LARKIN 2,517,686

REFRIGERATING APPARATUS FOR THE COLD STORAGE 0F GOODS Filed June 17, 1946 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 IN Ve-ra R E. E. LARKIN 2,517,686 REFRIGERATING APPARATUS FORTHE com STORAGE 0F GOODS 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Aug. 8, 1950 Filed June 17, 1946 I I I I I I L I I llnl A. n k 7) C772 777% Patented Aug. 8, 1950 REFRIGERATING APPARATUS Foru THE ooLn STORAGE F GOODS Ernest Edmund Larkin, Pinner, England, assignor to Union Cold Storage Company Limited, London, England, a British company Application June 17, 1946, Serial No. 677,353

3 Claims.

This application is a continuation-in-part of the United States patent application, Serial No. 581,764, entitled Methods and refrigerating apparatus for the cold storage of goods, filed March 9, 1945, now Patent No. 2,441,889 granted May 18,

The present invention has for its main object to provide increased storage space for goods in a refrigerator of the kind described in the said co-pending patent application.

Another object is to provide improved refrigerating apparatus for the cold storage of food and other goods comprising an inner storage chamberand an outer storage chamber that surrounds the inner chamber and is cooled thereby.

According to the invention there is provided refrigerating and cold storage apparatus comprising an outer casing having thermically insulated walls, an inner chamber for accommodating goods to be stored supported in the outer casing so as to form therein a sealed cooling space surrounding substantially the entire area of the top, bottom side and end walls of the inner chamfor circulatingcold air therein over all said walls of the inner chamber, and means enabling goods to be stowed in, and removed from the inner chamber while retaining the cooling space sealed and thereby shut off from the atmosphere or from any other space, which sealed cooling space surrounding the inner chamber is spaced away from the inner face of the walls of the outer casing to provide a relatively large storage space adapted for the storage of goods, therein and removal of goods therefrom. a

The invention is diagrammatically, illustrated by way of example in the accompanying drawings, wherein:

Figure 1 is a diagrammatic perspective view showing one construction of a double-walled inner chamber, shown broken away, provided in refrigerating and cold storage apparatus according to the invention.

Figure 2 is a central transverse section taken through refrigerating and cold-storage apparatus according to the invention comprising an outer casing having within it the inner chamber shown in Figure 1,

Figure 3 is a detail vertical section taken through the lower part of the inner, chamber shown in Figure 1 and the adjacent part of an outer casing drawn to a scale larger than that of Figure 1,

Figure; l is a perspective view ofthe apparatus shown in Figure 2 on a scale smaller than that of Figures 1 and 2, and

Figure 5 is a top plan View of the apparatus shown in Figure 4,

Figure 6 is a top plan view of a modified construction of apparatus according to the invention.

Like reference characters designate like parts in all the views.

Referring first to Figures 1 to 5 of the drawings, refrigerating and cold storage apparatus accord ing to the present invention comprises a relative- 1y large outer casing Ill insulated within against the admission of heat by a layer of heat-insulat-' ing material [2 applied to its inner face. A jacketed or double-walled inner chamber, designated generally [4, for the cold storage of food and other articles is supported in any convenient manner within the outer casing, the relative sizes of the lined outer casing and the double-walled inner chamber 14 being such that a relatively large storage space It for goods is left between the two. As shown in Figure 2, the chamber l4 rests on spaced bearer members I 8, preferably composed of wood or other material which is a poor conductor of heat.

As in the construction described inthe said co-pending patent application Serial No. 581,764, the inner chamber [4 (see Figure l) is rectangular as viewed in plan, side elevation and end elevation, and comprises an inner shell or casing 20 and an outer shell or jacket 22, spaced away therefrom to provide between the two a cooling space 24 for the circulation of cold air through it, as described hereinafter, which coo1ing space constitutes a hermetically sealed air space and surrounds the top, bottom, sides and ends of the inner shell 20. The walls of both shells may be flat, as shown, or corrugated. In order to enable goods to be stowed in, and removed from the inner chamber 14 without placing the jacket cooling space 24 into open communicationwith the atmosphere, a passageway 26 for use in loading and unloading the chamber [4 extends airtight through the closed cooling space 24 to the inner shell 20, and is provided with closure means 28, 29, described hereinafter.

An air-tight cooling device 30 in the form of a coil through which a refrigerant, such as brine, can be circulated is accommodated in the cooling space 24 at the lower portion of one end thereof. This coil has an inlet pipe 32 and an outlet pipe 34 which extend through the outer casingxlll. Air-circulating means is also arranged in the closed cooling space 24 preferably adjacent to the cooling device. As illustrated, this air-circulat- 3 dOOr 28.

ing means is constituted by an electrically driven fan 36 of any convenient or known construction that is situated above the cooling coil 30, and has current-supply leads 39 extending through the outer casing.

In order that the cold air circulated in the closed cooling space 24 shall flow along a circuitous path therein, a plurality of partitions are so arranged in the jacket 22, as described hereinafter, that the air flow in counter-current in each of the parts of the cooling space 24 situated respectively at the top, bottom side walls and end walls of the outer casing. As shown, a horizontal partition 38 having the form of a rectangle, as viewed in plan, with part broken away, is situated substantially half way up the height of the inner chamber, and divides the closed cooling space 24 into substantially equal upper and lower portions, in which the air circulates in opposite directions. An end portion 40 of this partition terminates at the passageway 26, and a side portion 42 terminates at a situation spaced away from the end portion of the cooling space containing the cooling coil and fan, so that cold air returning towards the latter can flow downwards through the horizontal partition before continuing its path in the opposite direction below the horizontal partition.

A vertical partition 44 of U-shape extends along the cooling space 24 at the top and bottom thereof, and has an end portion 46 that extends downwards to the top of the passageway 26, which vertical partition divides the closed cooling space 24 into two lateral portions which are in open connection one with the other at its end remote from the cooling coil and fan, because the upper and lower parts of the vertical partition 44 terminate respectively at 48 and 50 at situations spaced away from the adjacent end of the jacket.

Four slanting partitions 52, 54, 56 and 58 are arranged at the four corners of the cooling space. The two upper slanting partitions 54 and 56 and the upper part of the vertical partition 44 form two passages that extend completely along the top of the chamber, and are in open connection one with the other in the end of the jacket 22 remote from the cooling coil, and the lower slanting partitions 52 and 58 form with the lower part of the vertical partition 44 two passages which extend completely along the bottom of the inner chamber, and are also in open communication one with the other in the end of the jacket remote from the cooling coil.

In the construction of apparatus shown in Figures 1 to 5, the passageway 28 extends through the adjacent end part of the storage space l6, and its said closure means comprises two doors 28 and 29. The inner door 28 (see Figures 1 and is situated at the outer end wall of the jacket 24, and the outer door 29 (see Figure 4) is situated at the adjacent end wall of the outer casing H], l2, so that access is afforded to the door 28 for opening and closing it without placing the interior of the jacket into open communication with the outer atmosphere.

The modified construction of apparatus shown in Figure 6, is similar to that described above with reference to Figures 1 to 5, but difiers therefrom in the arrangement of the passageway 26 and closure means therefor. In this modified construction, the passageway 25 extends airtight only through the closed cooling space 2-4 between the inner and outer shells 20 and 22 of the jacket, and has at its outer end closure means such as Provision is made so that the part of the outer casing adjacent to the passage-way 26 affords access to the door 28 for opening and closing it. .As shown the outer casing has a door 60 for this purpose.

The described arrangement of the partitions, which provides for counter-current flow of the cooling air in various parts of the cooling space, promotes the thermal efiiciency of the apparatus, and as the air in the closed cooling space 24 in the jacket 22 need not be changed when loading and unloading the chamber it can remain unchanged for very long periods, so that the efficiency of the apparatus is high. Moreover, the closed cooling space 24 in the jacket serves as refrigerating means for cooling not only the interior storage space in the inner chamber, but also the relatively large storage space I6 which is situated outside the inner chamber and within the outer casing, which spac I6 may be provided with any known or convenient additional refrigerating means, such as one or more cooling coils,

if desired. Further as compared with known apparatus in which heat is permitted to leak through the outer casing by conduction or otherwise into an inner chamber, and has subsequentl to be cooled to the required temperature, the improved apparatus is more efficient because owing to the cooling space 24 in the jacket 22 being maintained always at a low temperature heat from the outer casing is prevented from gaining access to the air and goods in the inner storage chamber.

In some cases some other gas, such as carbon dioxide, may be circulated within the cooling space 24 instead of air, and the word air used herein is intended to cover other gaseous cooling fluids besides atmospheric air where the context permits.

I claim:

1. Refrigerating and cold storage apparatus comprising an outer casing having thermically insulated walls, an inner chamber for accommodating goods to be stored supported in the outer casing so as to form therein a sealed cooling space surrounding substantially the entire area of the top, bottom, side and end walls of the inner chamber, an air-tight cooling device and air-circulating means arranged in the sealed cooling space for circulating cold air therein over all said walls of the inner chamber, and means enabling goods to be stowed in, and removed from the inner chamber while retaining the cooling space sealed and thereby shut ofi from the atmosphere or from any other space, which sealed cooling space surrounding the inner chamber is spaced away from the inner face of the walls of the outer casing to provide a relatively large storage space adapted for the storage of goods therein and removal of goods therefrom.

2. Refrigerating and cold storage apparatus comprising a rectangular, thermically insulated, outer casing, a rectangular jacketed inner chamber therein for accommodating goods to be stored, the jacket of which inner chamber confines a sealed cooling space substantially completel surrounding all the walls of the inner chamber, which jacket is spaced away from the outer casing to form a relatively large storage space for goods, an air-tight cooling device in the sealed cooling space, air-circulating means in the sealed cooling space, a plurality of partitions arranged to form in the cooling space a circuitous path in which the air-circulating means and the cooling device are situated, which path is so arranged that air circulated along it is adapted to flow in countercurrent in each of the several parts of the cooling space situated respectively at the top wall, bottom wall, side walls and end walls of the jacket, a passageway for use in loading and unloading the inner chamber that extends air-tight through the sealed cooling space to the inner chamber, and opens at one end into the latter and at its other end into the storage space in the outer casing surrounding the jacket, and closure means for closing the passage way.

3. Refrigerating and cold storage apparatus, comprising a thermic-ally insulated, outer casing, a jacketed inner casing therein for accommodating goods to be stored, the jacket of which inner chamber confines a sealed cooling space substantially completely surrounding all the walls of the inner chamber, and is spaced awa from the outer casing to form a storage space for goods outside the jacket, an air-tight cooling device in the sealed cooling space, air-circulating means in the cooled sealing space, a passageway for use in loading and unloading the inner surrounding chamber that extends air-tight through the storage space surrounding the jacket, and through the sealed cooling space in the jacket to the inner chamber, and opens at one end into the latter and at its other end through the outer casing, and closure means for closing the passage-way.

ERNEST EDMUND LARKIN.

REFERENCES CITED UNITED STATES PATENTS Name Date Larkin May 18, 1948 Number 

